“There is nothing.”
Mia walked slowly, dragging her feet in the water. She had been walking for hours with nothing but the occasional sharp tooth fish jumping out at her.
There were no changes, it was just a long… loooong… hallway…
“No treasure, no other monsters… where did all the fish go?” She scanned the area, but there was nothing.
She had not even gained a single level throughout all of this, nothing, it was just a gigantic waste of time.
Worst of all, the water was starting to lose its effectiveness.
“Is this it?” she asked herself “Is this the end…dying alone in a dungeon… guess I deserve it…” she thought back to Hiiro and how she abandoned him, back to her village she had left and how she would have to leave again soon, once she dies.
“All for no- Hey?!” Cut from her pessimism she dodged out of the way of a green glob that landed in the water behind her, sizzling as it sank “what was?”
She looked towards the source, a dark green bulbus creature standing on one leg, 5 eyes glaring towards her.
“Something new!” she rushed towards it with new found vigor, after not seeing anything new after so long… she hoped it was edible.
The creature leaned back, water dripping from its face as it bloated “Croooa-CAH!” and spat out another blob of goo.
Mia ducked under it “Hmn!” and chucked her weapon at it.
“Crao-?!”
And hit it directly, the pierced monster falling back into the water.
“hm, easy….” Slightly disappointed at the ease of her the battle, but she guess it was too be expected “can I eat it?”
She trotted over to the corpse, or, to where she thought the corpse was, but it was no where to be found “eh? I killed it…right?” she searched around the area, wading through water as she searched but found nothing “Ami, I killed it right?”
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[Correct, the kill has been confirmed after you gained a level.]
“Oh?” she checked her status and as Ami had said, she did, she dumped half of it into MND and the other into DEX. It had been awhile, and while the surprise was pleasant there was still the issue of “where is my weapon?”
She huffed, not only was her weapon gone, but so was her potential food “Finally found, now gone.” She sighed, sticking her head into the water in one last futile effort to find it…
“Ooh-?!?” She shot up out of the water “Ble-gah- fu-cau- bleeeeh” spitting out the water she went back under, seeing her weapon and even the monster it was stabbed into, deeper, in the water ‘huh? How is that?’ she moved towards it, until her feet were standing on the ground above it but it was passed the ground.
‘weird…’ she reached down, expecting to get stopped by the ground but instead reached passed it ‘its not there… but is?’ she reached as far as she could but could not reach.
She stood up, took a deep breath, and dived down, pulling her body passed the bottom of the water towards her weapon, and immediately freaking out once she felt the ground beneath her give way, feeling herself tumble around in the water, spinning without direction she desperately held her breath.
As she spun she looked for the surface, only occasionally seeing her weapon as she spun around. She hardened her resolve, desperate not to drown again, and reached out, grabbing ahold of the shaft she pulled.
“Puwauh~!” and surfaced from the water, taking a deep breath and calming herself. She looked at her weapon, the monster still pierced on its edge, and rose it triumphantly “Did it!”
“Caw!”
She felt a *thunk* as the monster was plucked from her weapon “Hey!” she stood up, only to watch helplessly as a giant bird flew off into the sky with her prey “Hrnm…” she groaned, sick of this place. The endless hallway, being always wet, hungry, almost drowning, and now she was getting stolen from by birds… birds?
She looked around, not seeing the stone walls she had grown sick of anywhere, the hallway gone, replaced by an endless greenish sky, and the ground replaced by an ever-expanding marsh “Huh, ok.” She looked down, squinting her eyes she could just barely make out seeing the familiar stone hallway below her.
“Creepy.”
So now she was here, where ever *here* was, she didn’t see a sun, and the whole area was…well compared to the last place she could not say it was empty. She could see some trees, rocks, some moving rocks, a few birds(monsters) flying in the sky, and a stone structure in the distance. “Lot more.” Her excitement was building.
“Building first.”
She ran towards it, still in knee deep water but by now she was more than used to it, and as she got closer to it the water level was changing, getting shallower. By the time she was at the foot of the structure it was just ankle deep.
“pretty.” It was a simple stone bricked structure, its ivory stone sticking out from the rest of the surroundings, the structure itself was a circler shrine, standing above the marsh. But more importantly, at its center was a chest “ooooh~”
After so long… this place was already way better than the hallway. She ran up to it, throwing caution to the wind and swinging it open, inside was a simple blue orb.
An orb Mia recognized.
“A… skill orb?”